Sometimes we forget that
film
is a visual medium. Sure we sit down in our chairs at
the theater or at
home and watch whatever, but because we take for granted
the quality of
the image we see on the screen we rarely appreciate the
artistry that
it takes to create said image. Then every once in a
while a movie comes
along that is filmed so beautifully and looks so
phenomenal that the
title ‘Director of Photography’ informs you that a true
artist was
behind the lighting and framing of every single frame of
this film that
you are watching. Swedish director’s Steve Aalam's film
‘Gangster’ is
such a movie with the best word to describe how looks as
‘lush’. Okay,
so the movie looks great, but is it any good? Well,
though not a bad
movie, but like a book with a pretty cover, it certainly
looks better
than it reads.

As our film opens we see
Antonio (Peter Gardiner) declaring undying love to his
pregnant
girlfriend Sofie (Aliette Opheim) at some wacky new age
type ceremony
while Antonio’s sister Nathalie (Malou Hansson) looks on
as a witness
to this glorious event. Meantime mob boss Thomas Steele
(Mikael
Persbrandt) is kissing his daughter and wife good-bye
and it is fairly
obvious in the slow motion of it all that once they get
into that car,
something bad is going to happen, and as if on cue, it
does. A
distraught Thomas knows who planted the bomb in his car,
an explosive
that was no doubt meant for him, A man named Tobbe
(Tobias Hjelm). This
Tobbe is apparently of some great importance to Sofie,
who in tears and
on her hands and knees begs Thomas to allow the police
to handle the
situation and spare Tobbe’s life. At the wake for his
family Thomas
informs Antonio, his right hand man, of his girlfriend’s
pleas and asks
him ‘is this what we do?’ The answer in unequivocally
no, Antonio
reluctantly kills Tobbe, a friend of his and cherished
brother to his
one true love which leads to catastrophic consequences
for all involved.

Years have passed and
Antonio
has detached himself somewhat from Thomas and his
organization, opening
a restaurant and finding a new mate in the lovely,
albeit extremely
jealous Jazmine (Jenny Lampa), who also serves as
accountant and
advisor to the Steele crime empire. Never far from
Antonio, for reasons
we won’t divulge as it is best to allow these things to
unfold on their
own is Sofie. Antonio had taken out a loan to fund his
restaurant and
is in the process or repaying the loan – people in this
line of work don’t
deal with bankers mind you – when inexplicably his money
is stolen from
him by his sister Nathalie to pay some debts that their
father owes.
This is about the point ‘Gangster’ pretty much flies off
the tracks and
explodes in a small town outside of Stockholm as we get
introduced to
more mobsters, the son of a shipping tycoon and his
lesbian mother, while
secrets are revealed about Sofie and her relationship to
the criminal
organization. Jazmin learns other secrets which only
pisses her more
leading her to take actions with extremely dire
consequences leading to
a most explosive conclusion.

Andreas Wassberg is your
cinematographer for this film, a name to remember. Steve
Aalam is your
director for this film, a name to remember. Not since
South Korean
director Kim In-shik’s ‘Hypnotized’ have I seen a film
that looked as a
good as this one does. This is old time Hollywood style
filmmaking with
beautiful people in beautiful clothes placed in
beautiful sets shot
under beautiful lights. The movie itself is a bit of a
confusing
enigma, again much in the way that found I Kim’s
‘Hypnotized’. There
seemed to be far too many characters for Aalam’s script
to support,
especially considering the wealth of melodrama that
surrounded most of
the characters. And a narrative which was fairly broad
to begin with
was blown wide open and bordered on the comical by the
time Nathalie
took off with her brother’s loot. Since there were so
many characters
there wasn’t a lot of time put into the development of
all these characters
which didn’t assist in helping translate why these
characters performed
in a certain way. It seemed that Aalam recognized this
shortcoming and
attempted to put in little dialog bits in between the
melodrama to
explain some of these things, but it wasn’t enough.

On the positive side,
other
than the unparalleled look of the film, Mikael
Persbrandt was magnetic
as mobster Thomas Steele, though I’m not quite sure what
kind of
mobster he was since I don’t recall him doing a single
illegal thing in
this movie, Peter Gardiner emotional stoicism played
well to his
character as the emotionally stoic Antonio and since
I’ve never been to
Sweden I must assume that if a skirt doesn’t hug your
hips and doesn’t
creep at least 10 inches above the knee, than that’s a
skirt that women
there simply won't wear. Whatever the situation.
Funerals, formals,
church, police raids, whatever – tight mini skirts worn,
by women who
can fill up a tight mini skirt with the best of them, at
all times.
Director Aalam should take his three stunningly
beautiful female leads
and stick them in another flick immediately. Some kind
of Swedish
Charlie’s Angels I’m thinking.

As a film ‘Gangster’ has
it’s
shortcomings. As a primer on how movie is supposed to
look it has few
peers. Enjoy it for the photography, enjoy it for its
women, enjoy it
for Makael Persbrant, tolerate it for its story.